Westminstenders: No pubs till Christmas?

[RedToothBrush]

Today the news has moved towards acknowledging covid-19 reality: Nicola Sturgeon has explicitly stated that some social distancing will carry on until the new year in all likelihood.

When Matt Hancock asked if this was true for England too, he refused to say yes but he said that Scotland was working from the same framework as England.

In case anyone does still need this spelling out, this means the outlook for the hospitality and leisure industries is bleak.

There are extremely unlikely to be many enjoying a holiday in the sun any time soon, whether it be in Devon or Spain.

We won't be celebrating birthdays in restaurants nor having a pint in the pub.

Conversations on the doorstep from a couple of metres away is as good as it gets.

That means if you can't adapt you may not survive.

To add into the mix changes to customs to those companies who are operating seems insanity. But that's a political not a scientific decision to be made.

Whether reality in this will kick in, in the next six weeks or so before EU budgetary decisions relating to an extension have to be made remains to be seen.

Until then, there is no news but covid-19.

The gendarmes and the municipal police were out in force in my little town at the start of lockdown, but are far less visible now. I live just by the gendarmerie and in the first few weeks, when we were at our windows clapping at 8pm every evening, we'd see several vans of 5-6 gendarmes driving back to the station.
Now, we see one or two gendarmes heading home. Sometimes wearing what look like navy blue hazmat suits...
And we've not been checked for several weeks now, whereas it happened several times initially.
I'm still waiting to see whether I was fined for the time I grabbed the wrong papers when I was rushing out.

What would people in Great Britain think when faced with the Army on the streets?

We already know, since the people of Great Britain have faced the army on the streets.

Or are we othering Northern Ireland (again ?)

It wasn't a great time, as I recall.

Optimistic COVID news - as the design will be usable in many situations in the UK and around the world
www.uhs.nhs.uk/AboutTheTrust/Newsandpublications/Latestnews/2020/April/Hospital-trust-becomes-first-to-introduce-pioneering-respirator-hoods-for-staff-treating-coronavirus-patients.aspx

Barnier presser

Nick Gutteridge @nick_gutteridge
Barnier: 'In the middle of an economic shock which is terrible and round the corner because of Coronavirus we have to see if we can come up with a smart agreement to cushion the shock which will at any rate be linked to the UK exit from the Single Market and Customs Union.'

Barnier: 'UK has affirmed its wish to make substantial, tangible progress. We’re on same wavelength. We need genuine progress by June if at end of this year we want to strike an agreement which is comensurate to level of our economic interdependence & geographical proximity.'

Barnier: 'Even in a short time frame it’s possible to strike a complete agreement on all the subjects for our future partnership.'

Barnier: 'Our objective for tangible progress in parallel on all subjects I’m afraid this has only been very partially met this week. The UK didn’t wish to commit seriously on a number of fundamental points.'

Barnier: 'We cannot accept selective progress on a limited set of issues only. We need to find solutions on the most difficult topics. The UK cannot refuse to extend the transition and at the same time slow down discussions on important areas.'

Barnier says the UK 'failed to engage substantively' on Level Playing Field this week. 'It argued our positions are too far apart to reach an agreement. It also denounced the basic premise that economic inter-connectenedess and geographic proximity require robust guarantees.'

Barnier: 'UK refuses to provide firm guarantees rather than vague principles on fundamental rights & individual freedoms. Insists on lowering current standards & deviating from agreed mechanism of data protection. This creates serious limitations for future security partnership.'

Barnier: 'We made no progress on fisheries. On this essential topic UK hasn’t put forward a legal text. EU will not agree to any future economic partnership that does not include a balanced sustainable and long-term solution on fisheries. That should be crystal clear to the UK.'

Barnier: 'We need clear evidence UK is advancing with the introduction of the agreed customs procedures for goods entering Northern Ireland. We need clear evidence UK will be able to carry out all necessary SPS controls as well as other regulatory checks on goods entering NI.'

Barnier says he 'reminded David Frost again that the faithful implantation of the Withdrawal Agreement is absolutely central to our ongoing negotiations'.

Government IT project having teething troubles Coronavirus: Test website closes after 'significant demand' www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52405852
Who'd of thought it......

Barnier remaining polite, but speaking very plainly, not mincing words

Northern Ireland is not part of Great Britian.

Any appearance of troops on the streets in GB would be met with applause. It's been a while since Peterloo.

Or are we othering Northern Ireland (again ?)

This DGR is why I very carefully specified Great Britain.

PMK as always my thanks to Red & all you other lovely funny & well informed posters, you help keep me relatively sane.

Dr Blackbird do hope you start to improve very soon💐

I can remember when this was considered "highly offensive" ...

This DGR is why I very carefully specified Great Britain

Apologies - got carried away ...

pmk

it's almost like they don't want to test....

It's what I've said from the start, mrsl. Scandalous.

If they test, they'll uncover the true scale of infection. Once they know that, they'll have to deal with it. Or have more blood on their hands.

Remember yesterday I was talking about the Met office weather warning grid? I'm feeling very smug today looking at this image from the pandemic preparation report that the government ignored last year.

I don't know how the UK can exit lockdown without these prerequsisites:

. Mass track & trace, to help reduce the number of new infections
. Efficient mass testing program, to warn as early as possible if exponential growth is starting again

Of course, the number of daily new positive cases and of deaths also needs to be decreasing to whatever is deemed "acceptable"

Many thanks Dontcall I'm thinking that the AB are making a difference so that's interesting.

Red or others... it's so clear how the EU has brought expertise and effort to the multitude of Brexit issues. Is the lack of input / engagement from Frost and the UK negotiating team a lack of expertise? Which I could believe. When you don't know what you're talking about, being vague, resorting to general principles etc is the usual tactic.

Or is it a lack of political will to engage at all because the ultimate goal is leaving without a deal? In which case, the negotiations are for show and the EU team would have every right to be enraged. How did we end up with such a lot of tantrum toddlers stamping their feet as our government? It''s embarrassing. Not quite as embarrassing as Trump, but that bar is sinking dangerously lower every day.

Government IT project having teething troubles Coronavirus: Test website closes after 'significant demand' www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52405852
Who'd of thought it......

This seems to be about a shortage of tests causing the Dept of Health website to have to close to new orders, not a "gov IT project having teething troubles."

I realise we're all feeling quite cynical, but you wrote that as though there was a new technical issue on top of everything else rather than the exact same "lack of tests" issue that's been going on for yonks.

Or is it a lack of political will to engage at all because the ultimate goal is leaving without a deal? In which case, the negotiations are for show and the EU team would have every right to be enraged.

It's not being sneery, it is a real truth that majority of people in the UK - including those "in charge" - genuinely don't grasp the disadvantage the UK has in having to report all it's news in English. Where it's immediately understood by over 80% of Europeans, and 100% of those in charge. It leads to an asymmetric power balance, as very few UK politicians have the ability or political will to trawl the various native publications in France, Germany etc.

So no verification of any kind as to the people applying for a test, and no reason whatever for the 100,000 figure plucked out of the air because it sounds good.

So now the made-up number has to be made up to show the govt. are doing something.

Better than drinking bleach, I suppose.

(Kids: Don't drink bleach, OK.)

Better than drinking bleach, I suppose.

The fact the BBC felt the need to wheel out more than one source of medical advice as to the downsides of drinking bleach speaks volumes, really. I guess it was to ensure "balance".

You can tell it's the weekend. The grown-ups have all buggered off to their second homes constituencies and we are left with the daggy lumps on the sheep's arse like Grant Shapps.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grant_Shapps#Controversies

And we also have Dr Jenny aka Nurse Rached who confirms that we have not so much peaked as plateaued and could be up here for some time.

Fuck me, shapps doing the briefing!?

What next???

no, don't answer that!

Lots of folk on my fb feed think that "it'll get back to normal" after the 3 weeks is up...

I'm both staggered they are so ill informed and worried what their reaction will be...

Fuck me, Shapps! What next???

Well on the plus side, McVey has been sacked. But Grayling is still around. Or there's Karen Bradley who didn't know people in NI were Catholics and Protestants and did not always get on, etc.